Not at all if they weren't hitting shots. Edwards became much better as the season progressed, and Dj was much more physical than either Rob or Reed. Reed struggled beating his man off the dribble while Dj did not. Rob only played defense when his shots were falling, Reed played hard but was a poor on ball defender and gambled for way too many steals, often getting burned in the process.They were less of a liability than DJ and Edwards. And look, the whole team was built very badly. Calipari panicked by adding two 3 stars last minute, because he couldn't get anyone else. And had Tre Mitchell fall in his lap. We didn't have any better options other than to start Rob and Reed. And to hope they played through their lumps. Instead we rode with DJ and Edwards and got double 1st round losses.
I wouldn't say Burks was desperate at all. He was the leading scorer for OTE if I am not mistaken and has a lot of upside. He needs time to develop, but he worked his ass of. Hart is a solid 3pt shooter with pretty impressive athleticism and size. He is a player that could have been very good by year 3.
We had plenty of options. We had one of the deepest rosters in CBB last year.
But, as has already been pointed out and you all can offer no evidence to dispute, we didn't lose in the post season due to DJ and Edwards starting. Nor can you all show any data for any regular season games we lost as a result of them starting. In fact, when people point out we lost more when Reed did start, the excuse becomes it was because Dj was out.